On a recent August evening, over 200  or so freelancers mingled at the White Rabbit, a trendy bar off Houston Street-photographers, writers, temps, graphic designers and other members of the growing Freelancers Union, which had organized the event.

With down tempo electronica playing over the stereo system, the freelancers mingled, sipping early-evening cocktails and trading tips on landing the next freelance gig. Most seemed unaware of the doughy, 60-something Jewish man standing quietly in the back of the room.

But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) had only a few moments to enjoy his anonymity. Shortly after his arrival, Sara Horowitz, the executive director of the Freelancers Union, sidled up next to Silver, microphone in hand.

After hushing the crowd, Horowitz asked anyone who received health insurance through the Freelancers Union to raise their hands. Over three-fourths of the room did.

Horowitz smiled.

"It would be safe to say that that health insurance came to you because of the early help from Assemblyman Silver," she said.
After the event, Silver, who was instrumental in helping the group get its start over 10 years ago, said he welcomed the freelancers' support, which came amid a primary challenge from two candidates who tried to paint him as out of touch with the neighborhood-just as they welcomed his.

"Some people tend to think that one good turn deserves another," Silver said wryly.

But in order to play even a small role in New York's exclusive and expensive political scene, the union will have to go further than just aligning itself with Silver. To that end, the group has begun to shore up its political influence, recently forming a political action committee and switching its not-for-profit status to allow for lobbying and electioneering.

The freelancers are taking their first steps into the political arena, said Horowitz, a labor attorney with a background in union organizing.

And not a moment too soon, she added.

"Independent workers are in the growth part of our economy," Horowitz said a few days later, sitting in the Freelancers Union's neat, orange-trimmed offices in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn. "If we don't start investing in this part of the workforce, it will be to our own detriment."

Horowitz cited a recent report from the city comptroller's office, which found that of the 700,000 new jobs created last year, two-thirds were freelance or independent workers. Given those numbers, the state needs to update several key labor practices, like the Unincorporated Business Tax and unemployment benefits, to better meet the needs of this growing sector of the workforce.

"What's really important is looking at how people are working, what our economic development goals are and that we make sure that, even in times that are tough, we don't inadvertently cut off our nose to spite our face," Horowitz said.

Horowitz founded Working Today, the parent organization of the Freelancers Union, in 1995 as a means to help independent workers find affordable insurance plans. Today, the non-profit organization is comprised of 55,000 members statewide and almost 80,000 nationwide. Membership is free, though the union generates its operating costs-around $10 million last year-from fees acquired from selecting insurance plans for its members.

A labor attorney with a background in union organizing, Horowitz said the idea to grow the group's political chops has been there from the very beginning.

"We needed to build a model on the ground of showing what a new union would be and how it would organize itself," she said. "And in building those models, we then would have something to say in the policy debate about how the next safety net needs to be built."

Building that safety net will require the Freelancers Union to adopt a multifaceted political agenda, touching on important issues, from insurance to unemployment to taxes.

By most estimates, there are over a million independent workers in New York. With that in mind, Horowitz said the politically emboldened union will begin to lobby state and local officials to revise the Unincorporated Business Tax (UBT) to exempt freelance workers.

(At the White Rabbit, Horowitz's mention of the UBT elicited a chorus of "boo's" from the gathered freelancers-the kind of response one might have expected from that crowd had the bartender just shouted "last call.")

The union is also calling on the New York State Department of Labor to offer more services for independent workers. The current unemployment system needs to be updated to allow freelancers to file wage-an-hour claims if their employers fail to pay them.

But the road ahead will be difficult, Horowitz admitted, especially as the state's economic outlook worsens.

"It's going to be difficult to start talking about updating something if that involves revenue," she said.

That is why the Freelancers Union will need powerful allies as it goes forward. Silver, for example, was chosen because of his early support for the union and for his background in insurance.

Deciding who else to support through the union's new PAC (which to date has not reported any donations) may prove difficult, Horowitz said. Politicians are not always what they seem.

"I would say people who often think they're on the cutting edge are often inherently conservative," she said. "It's not always who you think."

Horowitz said she and others at the union have had discussions with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens) and Comptroller William Thompson (D), both of whom are running for mayor, and Council Member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn), who is running for comptroller, as well as several other potential candidates for 2009 she declined to name.

The union is currently searching for a political director to manage its policy agenda and is in the process of putting together an executive committee to handle political endorsements.

"Our coming-out party is probably going to be the mayor's race," she said. "I think it will be the first time that independent workers are really going to matter."

Edward Ott, executive director of the New York Central Labor Council, said he admires the Freelancers Union and what it has been able to accomplish quickly since coming onto the scene. Horowitz, he said, is one of the smartest people in the state when it comes to insurance.

The group will earn its place alongside other larger, better financed unions, as long as it sticks to its core issues, Ott added.
Horowitz agreed, saying she does not view the union's legislative goals as a zero-sum gain.

"I really see this as part of a social movement," she said, "talking about how we go back to a time where we were concerned about making the city livable and affordable and still dynamic and innovative."

But freelancers by nature are independently minded. Regardless of whom the union chooses to endorse this year and next, there is no guarantee all its members will follow lock-step.

Standing in the White Rabbit with a glass of wine in her hand, Abbe Eckstein, a freelance art director and design manager who has been a union member for five years, said she had mixed feelings about Silver in particular.

"Everybody does," Eckstein said, gesturing to her fellow freelancers. "After all, he killed the commuter tax."